'FILTH AND THE FURY' - GRITTY, BUT ACTUALLY GOOD.

Byline: Bob Strauss Film Critic

A long overdue post-mortem on the incendiary punk rock band the Sex Pistols becomes a moving epitaph to cultural individualism in Julien Temple's finely wrought documentary ``The Filth and the Fury.'' Charting Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious and the boys' 26-month odyssey from angry obscurity to agitated infamy and final dissolution, Temple places the band in the surprisingly apt context of British low culture and laments the way that Rotten's higher-minded agenda (yes, there really was one) was co-opted and commercialized about as quickly as a producer could say, ``Bring me the next Britney Spears!''

But don't think the movie's depressing or anything, like Temple's 1980 Pistols documentary, ``The Great Rock n' Roll Swindle,'' was. It's got too much artistic energy for that.

With the driving intensity of such now-recognized Pistols classics as ``Anarchy in the UK,'' ``Pretty Vacant'' and ``God Save the Queen'' powering the soundtrack, Temple and his editor Niven Howie create a visual plan both rhythmically and associatively worthy of the sonic assault. This movie may be about people who wear safety pins and spiked mohawks, but its astute and accomplished montage really recalls nothing so much as the work of such Russian masters as Eisenstein and Kuleshov.

Like those silent-era geniuses' films, ``Filth'' examines a revolution that ate itself. On voice tracks and in surprisingly effective, backlit silhouettes, the surviving band members - Rotten (nee John Lydon), guitarist Steve Jones, drummer Paul Cook and original bassist Glen Matlock - discuss how, despite numerous interpretations to the contrary, they were serious about creating music that was real, radical and relevant. They came up at a time, the mid-1970s, when England was wracked by social strife but its pop culture was still mired in glittery escapism. Footage of bell-bottomed idiots traipsing obliviously past mountains of uncollected London garbage (there was a strike on) unmistakably sets the scene.

While the film doesn't try to soft-pedal the Pistols' bad-boy showmanship, it does put it in a wider perspective. The group's attacks on English propriety - already a dead concept in the wake of the swinging '60s - had a genuinely idealistic charge. You can tell that by the still-undimmed thrill in Rotten's voice when he describes first noticing audience members punking out, expressing themselves ``as beautiful, though not beautiful''; and also in his sadness when he talks about how, six or so months later, the concertgoers' torn shirts and leather accouterments no longer looked like individually chosen styles, but like uniforms.

The whole ugly story is here: banned concerts; dropped recording contracts (instantly replaced by more lucrative ones); Sid's rise-and-regress from pogo-inventing fan to unreliable bandmate to drug casualty; the sniping, still going on today, between the former comrades. As in any account of the band, exploitative manager Malcolm McLaren comes off worst; Temple unfairly (but with enjoyable cheek) runs the impresario's words over pictures of some guy in a latex domination hood being pumped full of hot air.

But there is so much more to ``The Filth and the Fury'' than spite and spittle (the title is taken from an alarmist British tabloid headline, so that's one thing you can't blame the Pistols for). The movie is certainly unsettling and the punks are still angry, but there's something exhilarating, too, about the brief but genuine explosion of creative independence it depicts.

One of the many smart, unexpected references the movie keeps making is to Laurence Olivier's film version of ``Richard III.'' As played by this icon of the British theatrical establishment, the ugliest of Shakespeare's villains is clearly having a great time, putting the revel in his revolution just like the Pistols used to do on a good night.

No future for you? Maybe, but look here: It's happened at least twice, so who says we can't bust freely into our weird, unattractive and ecstatically true selves again?

THE FACTS

--The film: ``The Filth and the Fury'' (R; language, violence, drug use, filth, fury).

--The stars: Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious.

--Behind the scenes: Directed by Julien Temple. Produced by Anita Camarata and Amanda Temple. Released by Fine Line Features.

--Running time: One hour, 45 minutes.

--Playing: Nuart, West L.A.

--Our rating: Three and one half stars.

CAPTION(S):

photo, box

Photo: Julien Temple's documentary features an insightful look into Sex Pistols Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious and Steve Jones.

Box: THE FACTS (see text)